Varsapura is an open-world supernatural action RPG developed by miHoYo and published internationally by HoYoverse. The game takes place in a modern city known as the City of Rain, a metropolis soaked in perpetual rainfall and haunted by a corruptive substance called Mindrot. Players control a Hollowone recruited by the SEAL organization to investigate and contain supernatural threats.
The name combines two Sanskrit words: varsa (rain) and pura (city). This follows the same naming convention as Singapore's historical Sanskrit name, Singapura (Lion City), which is fitting since the City of Rain is modeled on Singapore. In Chinese, the game’s official title was confirmed in January 2026 as Yuwu zhi Du (雨雾之都, "City of Rain and Mist"), filed across more than twenty trademark categories. This replaced the earlier direct translation Yu zhi Cheng (雨之城, "City of Rain").
Visual Direction
Varsapura is built on Unreal Engine 5, making it miHoYo's first game outside of Unity. The art direction targets photorealism rather than the cel-shaded, anime-inspired look of Genshin Impact or Honkai: Star Rail. The 31-minute gameplay demo was captured on an NVIDIA RTX 4090 and showed ray-traced reflections on wet streets, volumetric rain, and physically accurate material rendering.
The character models drew mixed reactions. Environments and lighting were widely praised, but the character faces were criticized for an uncanny contrast between realistic body proportions and large, anime-style eyes. This is an area likely to see refinement before release.
Core Gameplay
The gameplay demo showed several interlocking systems:
Third-person combat with a 3-character party and real-time Character Swapping
Stealth with backstabs, cover mechanics, and overhead drop attacks
Vehicle driving through the open-world city with physics-based handling
A Dialogue System with Persuasion, Deception, and Empathy skill checks
Dimensional gateway exploration during Cognosea Disruption Events
Development Background
The project has a complicated Development History. miHoYo first attempted an urban open-world game in 2020 under the codename PJSH (Project SH), but disbanded that effort at the end of 2022 after scaling too ambitiously too quickly. The team regrouped by late 2023 under producer Cai Haoyu, miHoYo's co-founder, and the game was publicly revealed on November 21, 2025.
Platforms and release
No official release date or platform list has been announced. PC has the only primary grounding, since the reveal demo was captured on PC hardware. A mobile build is widely expected from the developer track record but has not been officially confirmed, and console releases on PlayStation 5 and Xbox remain unconfirmed community speculation. A hidden clue in the demo shows "2026.04.01" on SEAL application paperwork, which may hint at a beta test, though that date passed with no public test. Based on HoYoverse's typical testing timelines, analysts speculate a late 2027 or later release window.
Distribution Channels
No digital storefront listing has gone live and no platforms have been confirmed. Based on the developer distribution pattern, the expected channels would most likely include Steam, the Epic Games Store, and a dedicated HoYoverse client on PC, with mobile storefronts a strong possibility. None of these has a confirmed Varsapura listing yet.
Internal Directive Framing
The official reveal was framed in-universe as a SEAL Internal Directive (047-EX). The directive states that all reveal footage was captured from live operational environments under the codename RTX4090, and instructs viewers to remain calm and avoid excessive speculation to prevent Cognosea disruption events. SEAL also authorized only the English voice-over track for the initial public viewing while additional language modules remain in development.